Note: This is a seattlepi.com reader blog. It is not written or edited by the P-I. The authors are solely responsible for content. E-mail us at newmedia@seattlepi.com if you consider a post inappropriate.

McGinn and the Belltown Nightclub Scene

To late to take my $20 buck campaign donation back, I read on line in the the P.I. a position paper wherein mayoral Candidate Mike Mcginn basically comes out in favor of nightclubs over residents. Over the drone of a bunch of namby-pamby spin about noise enforcement, the Mcginn campaign basically says that if you move downtown don’t complain about a nightclub thats already there. In other words whoever gets there first gets the rights to control the situation. I suppose if you just got to town or have only been coming downtown since the 80’s you might think the pro-nightclub point of view was the stronger position. The truth is though Downtown Seattle has been a residential district for decades before any nightclub scene became the defining element of Belltown. If you look back at Pioneer Square where the contemporary music scene draws its recent history, you see a problem that is basically the same as Belltown’s. Which is residents driven crazy by incessant electronic bass beats that are far better heard a block or two away than they are heard on the dance floor. Thats because the low bass soundwave has an long extended sound wave better heard outside the club and down the block rather than in front of the speakers. Thats why when noise control goes into the club they really don’t hear what’s driving the locals insane. It would be far better if noise police were allowed into residents homes to check out what we deal with when we try to get to sleep. I know thats the system they use in Europe, measuring the sound from inside the adjacent residences. Another thing they do in Europe is locate the discos in the industrial districts, but more on that in just a minute.

Along with the maddening bass beat you have the window shaking beats of the car boom boxes as they cruise Belltown. This generally doesn’t stop til 3am which is about the same time the car alarms quit going off every time a loud carbox goes by. When I first lived in Pioneer Square in the 1960’s when it was full of people and nightclubs and to tell you the truth you couldn’t for the most part hear the music on the streets. This was back when by night Pioneer Square had a lot of packed gay dance clubs. They were not trying to draw attention to themselves for fear of police persecution. Inside the clubs packed dance floors; outside nothing to be heard but people talking and hurrying inside. It’s only when Pioneer Square began to fail as a buisness district, as the Kingdome started to dominate the once residential district that so many once popular places began to add live music to their restaurants. As an act of last resort the owners turned there once precious restaurants over to live music to make some money at the bar. Then came the joint cover charge for all venues scheme and voila Pioneer Square was never the same.

Nobody then and nobody now in Belltown or Pioneer Square or the Market speaks up for the many missions aiding the homeless and drug addicted whose clintele is kept awake til the wee am by nightclub music venues. How come Seattle is always speaking up for the homeless and the drug addicted and the nightclubs in the same breath? Don’t people trying to get new start in life deserve more than a few hours sleep? What bright mind turned Post Alley in the Market into drinkers alley thereby creating a nightly noise hell for subsidized housing, high end housing, market rate housing, B&B and SRO units that were all put in place long before any of the bars? How Seattle is it to put housing for the homeless next to live music venues and not see any issues or inconsistencies?

Screaming upon exiting a nightclub or bar; what is that about really? Does anyone think that any of these people are actually residents of Belltown? I would be curious to find out what percentage of club owners live in the district they exploit. Same with the DJ’s, car cruisers, the drug dealers; isn’t Belltown for them just a place to do business, nothing more. Isn’t Belltown for the city just a place to get a large % of vice taxes, nothing more? Who actually speaks up for the residential citizens who rent or who are in recovery or live in senior housing? Not the Weekly, not the Stranger, not Real Change nor the city council and evidently not the next Mayor.

And what goes with the smokers who have taken over the sidewalk seating of so many nightclubs in Belltown? Emboldened by breaking the law about not smoking within 25 ft of any building entrance, these scofflaws feel no need to be discrete, in fact they feel encouraged to be brazen and noisy and rude. Smokers weren’t that way when smoking wasn’t illegal…and thats just the problem with unenforced laws; they make the scofflaw bolder. There already exist noise ordinances about car stereo’s, aggressive panhandling, smoking in doorways and any number of quality of life issues. But when was the last time you saw any of these laws enforced. From my vantage point I daily see streams of crack and meth users coming and going constantly, day and night. Calling the police is useless, pointless, a waste of time. The abusers know that. At night they own the streets. Downtown, Belltown, Pioneer Sqaure, Chinatown have all been traditionally places of commerce and residence. From a peak of 40,000+ residents in the late 60’s to the below 20,000 residents today, Downtown Seattle has served as home for those seeking a mix of cultures, incomes and attitudes at any income level. To say that we must also serve as a open drug mart/crack den and out-of-towners on-demand party house is just to much. Entertainment districts belong in Industrial Areas where clubs can be put on full tilt. You want wide open entertainment districts, then head to a Sodo designed for alcohol fueled entertainment. Industrial areas are by definition almost completely empty of residents, plenty of night time parking til 6 am, buildings that lend themselves as makeovers for clubs and bars. It works well in densely residential Europe, why not here? This is something that the Supreme Court has even weighed in on when Roger Forbes was denied the right to set up his adult entertainment shops wherever he wanted. The ruling was that the city has the right to restrict the zoning of adult entertainment and that clubs, bars and movie theatres catering to an exclusive adult clientele can be restricted to industrial areas where minors are not generally present. Shootings and drug dealing has become common in Belltown. The noise issue is symptomatic of a neighborhood in constant transition. The question remains what is Belltown’s identity? A residential neighborhood with interesting bars and restaurants or an entertainment district riddled with druggies and exploitative club owners?

If the Belltown club and restaurant owners want to be an asset to the community then I encourage them to primarily hire from residents living in the 98121 zip code. In fact if they want to really be a part of things they too could walk to work. I would also encourage them to pull in the outdoor seating once the kitchen is closed. The outdoor shout-fests that have become a part of the night time sidewalk scene is fueled by cigarette smokers and binge drinkers. Q? isn’t that what bars are for, to bring the drinking and noise inside? We need to encourage the entertainment clubs to locate in non-residential areas where the loud electronic music won’t disturb those who trying to get some sleep and that includes the homeless, subsidized housing, low income housing, condo’s, hotel’s and bed and breakfast locations. Community rights start with the right to peacefully occupy your abode. For years Pioneer Square was allowed to run out of control; this was especially true during the Mayor Norm Rice administration. Eventually the Mardi Gras riot led to an abandonment of Pioneer Square as an entertainment district. Even the century old J &M cafe was closed then entirely auctioned off. Belltown could suffer the same fate if it allows economic exploitation to override local hiring and residential rights. The University District and Broadway are other examples of once thriving districts gone bad. Belltown and by association the Pike Market area suffers from an absolute plague of street level drug users and sellers. Coupled with the nightlife noise assault on the senses one has a situation that is drastically anti-resident. It took more than a decade but finally there has been a reversal of the deplorably unsanitary conditions of the downtown alleyways. Now if we who live in Belltown can keep the pressure on the mayoral candidates and the city council maybe we can get the upper hand on the excessive noise pollution that defines Belltown living by night.

Note: This is a seattlepi.com reader blog. It is not written or edited by the P-I. The authors are solely responsible for content. E-mail us at newmedia@seattlepi.com if you consider a post inappropriate.